White House blasts Obama intelligence community for 'manufactured' case against Michael Flynn
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany opens her briefing with a censure of President Obama's intelligence community after the Department of Justice moves to dismiss the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday accused the FBI of trying to “manufacture” a crime in its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn in 2017.
“The FBI exists to investigate crimes,” McEnany said during a briefing at the White House. “But in the case of Michael Flynn, it appears that they might have existed to manufacture one.”
“The FBI set out to interview Michael Flynn when they had no predicate for any investigation of any crime,” she added.
DOJ DROPS CASE AGAINST FLYNN, IN WAKE OF INTERNAL MEMO RELEASE
The Justice Department on Thursday moved to drop its case against Flynn.
“After a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information," the DOJ said officials concluded that Flynn's interview by the FBI was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and that the interview was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis."
The retired Army lieutenant general for months has been trying to withdraw his plea, aided by a new attorney aggressively challenging the prosecution’s case and conduct. But, the case has been plodding through the court system with no resolution ever since his original plea, even amid speculation about whether President Trump himself could extend a pardon.
In the days preceding the DOJ’s move to dismiss the case, newly unsealed documents revealed agents discussed their motivations for interviewing him in the Russia probe – questioning whether they wanted to "get him to lie" so he'd be fired or prosecuted, or get him to admit wrongdoing.
McEnany pointed to text messages from anti-Trump former head of FBI counter-intelligence Peter Strzok. On the same day the FBI moved to close the investigation “CROSSFIRE RAZOR” into Flynn, Jan. 4, 2017, Strzok texted an unidentified individual: “Hey don’t close RAZOR," according to classified documents released in late April.
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Strzok informed the FBI case manager that the FBI’s 7th floor was involved, referring to FBI leadership -- and that they still “need to decide what to do with him [with respect to] the [REDACTED].”
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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